A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

When Lü Zhong came back to his senses, the massive stone monument was gone.

The sound of a cheerful, short melody drifted over. It was Chun’Er, dancing gracefully once again. Her focus was absolute, her heart free of worldly wants and desires, a sight that couldn’t help but inspire envy.

Lü Zhong tried to communicate with her, hoping to gain something more.

But he came away empty-handed.

Seeing this, he made no further attempts.

As they had agreed, Lü Zhong released Feng Rui from their contract. Upon regaining his freedom, a look of relief washed over Feng Rui’s face. The thought that he had acquired the Golden Roc True Skill made him throw his head back and laugh heartily. It took him a while to compose himself, after which he turned to Lü Zhong and said,

”I really have you to thank for this, Fellow Daoist Lü!”

Feng Rui paused, then continued,

”Regarding the matter of restarting the Nai River, seven of the nine major nodes are located within the territory of the Human Race. They are scattered across Central Earth and the four border regions of the north, south, east, and west. Only you, Fellow Daoist Lü, can communicate with them. As for the remaining two nodes, the Demon Court will handle one, and I will contact the Water Palace for the other.”

”In that case, I’ll be counting on you!” Lü Zhong said with a cupped-fist salute.

Feng Rui nodded. With a flip of his hand, he produced the Dao Transmission Jade Disc and quickly vanished.

Lü Zhong lingered for a moment, gazing at the distant, towering Golden Giant Tree and the white-robed figure beneath it. After a moment of contemplation, his eyes glinting, he also produced his Dao Transmission Jade Disc. He silently recited three honorific titles in his mind, and was immediately enveloped in a golden light that transported him out of the Land of Immortal Arrival.

...

「Back in the Southern Barbarian lands.」

Lü Zhong did not immediately announce the existence of the Taichu Soul Revival Array.

Announcing it rashly at this time would be asking for trouble. After all, even Divinity Transformation cultivators were helpless to do anything about it. If he were to declare he had a solution, it would inevitably arouse suspicion that he had obtained some heaven-defying opportunity.

After careful deliberation, Lü Zhong decided it was best to wait.

The collapse of the Nai River was a long process, so a delay of one or two hundred years would make little difference. It would be best to wait until he had cultivated to the Quasi-Deification realm. It wouldn’t be too late to act once he had the power to protect himself.

Seated cross-legged in his Quiet Chamber, Lü Zhong gazed up at the starry sky above.

For some unknown reason, he felt a sense of unease, as if something momentous was about to happen.

’Strange...’

After racking his brain for a while, Lü Zhong still couldn’t pinpoint the source of his unease. Seeing that it wasn’t a spiritual premonition, he could only suppress the feeling for now and focus all his energy on cultivation, hoping to bring his Magical Power to the state of Perfection as soon as possible.

During his breaks from cultivation, he didn’t focus his energy on the Heaven-Mending Mantra.

’At my current stage, completing the Five Elements Unification ahead of schedule would just create unnecessary obstacles. It would slow down the advancement of my Magical Power.’

’Though the Five Spirit Roots allow one to cultivate a vast amount of Magical Power, it comes at the cost of time.’

’It would affect my speed in reaching the Quasi-Deification realm.’

After weighing his options, Lü Zhong decided to focus primarily on the Sleeve Universe Technique and practice the Heaven-Mending Mantra on the side.

As for everything else, it would have to be postponed.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, thirty years had passed.

During this period, Lü Zhong received a summons from Yu Feng’Er and immediately ended his secluded cultivation. He had assumed some emergency had occurred outside, but upon emerging, he learned that his children, Tianwen and Jiuge, had both successfully reached Foundation Establishment not long ago.

The thought of how he was so rarely present made Lü Zhong feel rather ashamed.

Therefore, after attending the Foundation Establishment celebration, he made a point of spending half a year with his family, both to reconnect with them and to soothe his own guilty conscience.

During their time together, in between enjoying intimate moments with Yu Feng’Er, Lü Zhong also kept himself updated on the situation in the Southern Barbarian lands.

With the Demon Court not causing any disturbances and without him stirring up trouble, the Southern Barbarian Immortal Cultivation World continued to prosper, benefiting from the rising concentration of Spiritual Qi brought by the Spirit Tide.

Everyone was immersed in this golden age of cultivation, so naturally, no one noticed that the Nai River—the very key to the Qinghe Realm’s survival—was set to collapse within a millennium.

One day, an expression of pure joy appeared on Lü Zhong’s face.

It wasn’t because he had a breakthrough in his cultivation. Rather, after a long period of hard work, he had finally succeeded in forming the Singularity, mastering the First Layer of the Sleeve Universe Divine Technique.

To be honest, he had never expected to master the Sleeve Universe Technique so quickly.

The reason for his rapid progress was likely the massive increase in the quality and quantity of his mental processing power after advancing to the Late-stage Nascent Soul and completing the fusion of his Nascent Soul with his Primordial Spirit.

To use the Sleeve Universe Technique, one simply had to silently recite its incantation. For those less proficient, it could be supplemented with a Seal Mantra. This would cause the Singularity in one’s sleeve to expand, creating a temporary space.

The duration for which the space could be maintained varied with its size.

At his current level of strength, he could maintain a large space of ten thousand cubic meters for just under fifteen minutes.

However, if he shrank the temporary space to a single cubic meter, he could maintain it for at least three days.

The reason for this was simple: the larger the temporary space, the more Magical Power was needed to maintain its stability. Conversely, a smaller space meant a sharp decrease in consumption.

As for whether an enemy could break through the space...

The baseline durability of the space far exceeded the maximum destructive power of a Nascent Soul Cultivator, making it virtually impossible to destroy from the inside. The only exception would be an enemy who possessed a means of shattering space itself, but such a technique was unlikely to be in the possession of a Nascent Soul Cultivator, or even a Divinity Transformation cultivator.

Even if they did have such a means, it would be difficult to break through quickly, so there was no need to dwell on the issue.

After some experimentation, Lü Zhong found that at its current stage, the Sleeve Universe Technique wasn’t very useful in combat, aside from moving supplies around or showing off in front of others.

Unless he could lure an enemy into the Qiankun Space.

’Perhaps I could forcibly drag them inside, like trapping someone with the Death-Suppressing Chain. But if I can already control someone to that degree, there’s no need to throw them into the space in my sleeve.’